Panel for sidings and roofs



Nov. 28', 1950 A. ELMENDORF 2,532,017

PANEL FOR SIDINGS AND ROOFS Filed July 10, 1947 .2. g m? "1 M '1? n 4 r i I H I i w I W m W Q\ V l! M Patented Nov. 28, i950 2,532,017 PANEL FOR SIDINGS AND RooFs' Armin Elmendorf, Winnetka, Ill; Application JulylO, 1947, Serial No. 760,129

3 Claims.

In my prior patents, Nos. 2,130,178 and 2,276,- 170, I have disclosed constructions that permit short pieces of lumber that constitute waste material in lumber mills to be worked up into fairly large, thin, light panels suitable for sidings or as roof coverings. The present invention relates to this same general type of construction and has for its object to create a superior panel of attractive appearance.

The various features of novelty whereby the present invention is characterized will hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but, for a full understanding of the invention and of its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accornpanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a face View, on a very small scale, of a panel embodying the present invention; Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. l, but on a much larger scale, showing small fragments constituting the four corners of the rectangular panel; Fig. 3 is a view, partly in section and partly in elevation, on line 3 3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is an edge view, looking at the panel from a point to the left of Fig. 2 or Fig. 3; and Fig. 5 is a more or less diagrammatic view illustrating the manner of assembling my panels in their final positions of use.

In carrying out my invention I saw pieces of lumber into short boards about three sixteenths to three eighths inch thick and from ten to sixteen inches long, and of random widths. Suflicient pieces are assembled, edge to edge, to create a panel i, that is three or four feet wide and as long as the little boards; the wood grain running lengthwise of the panel. Each little board remains in one piece but, either before or after they are assembled into a panel form, they are deeply grooved along parallel longitudinal lines, in both faces. The boards are preferably grooved on the two faces before they are cut to length in order to avoid cutting into the splines and thereby injuring them. Each of the grooves 2 in one face lies directly opposite a groove 3 in the other face. The depths of the grooves is such that an interior layer of wood, parallel to the board faces, remains uncut. Where this layer separates the two sets of grooves from each other it appears in the form of thin webs 4. Because the grooves are made by removing a corresponding amount of wood, the webs remain in their natural condition and, being so much thinner than the strip-like elements 5, 5 and 5 alternating therewith, are

much weaker than the latterunder compression or tension forcesin the plane of the panel and crosswise of the grooves.

The short boards are fastened together at their ends in a manner to prevent material increase or decrease in the width of their ends due to changes in the moisture in the wood. This is done by bonding a rigid strip or bar 6 of wood across the ends of the boards, each strip or bar extending across the entire widthof the panel. In the arrangement shown, the strips or bars are thin, flat wood splines about one inch wide set into deep kerfs l in the end edge faces of the panel; the wood grain in the splines extending lengthwise of the same; and the splines being securely fastened in place through bonding with a waterproof adhesive such as phenolic resin or resorcinol adhesives.

When a. panel subsequently takes up moisture and the wood swells, expansion occurs naturally in the strip-like elements alternating with the much thinner webs; the webs being too weak. to resist the crushing forces exerted thereon by the elements of full original thickness between. which they lie.

The thickness of these webs should generally be less than one third the thickness of the strip-like elements. Thus the Weak webs are crushed and, in so doing, save the relatively wide strip-like elements from being subjected to stresses that might otherwise cause the assembled panel to buckle or bulge. When the panel loses moisture, each strip-like element simply contracts and, if the contraction be considerable, each web is pulled from opposite di rections until it ruptures. Here, again, the webs yield before the strip-like elements are stressed to the point where they are apt to crack or split. In actual use of the panels, the webs alternately are compacted by crushing forces and pulled apart by tensile stresses as the weather to which the panels are exposed changes and causes the wood to expand or to contract.

Because water can leak through the panels the actual seal for the roof or wall on which they are used must be provided by some additional means, preferably water-proof felt as in my aforesaid patents.

In Fig. 5 I have shown how my panels may be used as a siding. Starting at the bottom of a wall A, a strip of waterproof building felt 8, at least as wide as the length of a panel and preferably long enough to extend across the entire width of the wall, is placed against the wall. The first course of panels is then applied over the felt and secured by nails 9; the nails being driven through the panels so near the upper edges that they pass through the splines. A second strip of building felt is then fastened to the wall upwardly from the first course of panels and overlapping the latter about two inches. When the second course of panels is added, they overlap the first course two inches and conceal the underlying second strip of building felt. Nails 10 are driven through the lower marginal portions of the panels, so as to pass through two panels and two layers of felt and into the wall.

The grooves on the under sides of the panels form channels along which water which manages to get through can drain freely; the greater part of the rain running down the outer faces of the panels, while some seeps through the panels and is stopped by the building felt until it can escape to the exposed surface of the next lower course of panels through the grooves in the under side of the panel that admitted the water in the first place.

It will thus be seen that I am able to convert short pieces of lumber into attractive, lightweight panels composed of thin boards that are intact in the sense of not being divided into separate strips or strips held together by mere strands of wood; the panels being constructed so that they cannot shrink or expand in width and will remain flatter than if individual strips of wood, or even strips connected together by a few strands, were used; and the greatest thickness being not necessarily more than the thickness of the short boards that form the panels. Although the panels are composed of solid wood, there is no more danger of the occurrence of long, wide cracks or splits than is the case where individual narrow square-edged strips are used. Not of minor importance is the ease with which pleasing patterns of strip-like elements may be created. Obviously, the Webs may be ruptured in the process of manufacturing the panels, actually reducing the short boards to a mass of strips in contact with each other, as long as the grooves are formed by cutting away the wood. Each groove in the exposed or weather face of a panel may be like every other groove and, yet, the grooves may be grouped in a great variety of ways to create any desired combination of eiiects based on the outlining of strip-like elements that vary in width from three sixteenths inch or less to about three quarters of an inch.

It will also be seen that the holding action of the splines on the strip-like elements is reinforced by the resistance contributed by the furring strips or sheathing into which the nails are driven after passing through the board material and the splines. Therefore, the splines may be made lighter than would be the case if there were no such nailing.

While I have illustrated and described with particularity only a single preferred form of my invention, I intend to cover all formscoming within the definitions of the invention constituting the appended claims.

Iclaim:

1. A short, wide rectangular panel composed of a single layer of wood boards from three sixteenths to three eighths inch thick, wherein the grain runs lengthwise thereof, said panel having in each face parallel grooves most of which are spaced apart from three sixteenths to three quarters, inch, the panel being of the same width as a similar ungrooved panel, each groove being opposite a groove in the other face and of such a depth that a thin layer of wood between and parallel to the faces of the panel remains intact and transforms the wood into strip-like elements alternating with much thinner and weaker web sections, and stiif Wood strips extending across the end portions of the panel transverse to thegrooves and bonded to all the strip-like elements so as to anchor each such element against bodily lateral displacements; whereby all the strip-like elements may expand normally in the area between the transverse strips to crush the web sections, when the panel takes up moisture, and the said elements may contract and rupture the web sections when the wood dries excessively.

v2. A panel as set forth in claim 3., wherein the stiif strips are in the form of splines fitted into deep kerfs that extend into the end edges of the panel in the plane of the web section.

3. A panel as set forth in claim 1, whereinv the grooves are formed by cutting out the wood. spaces occupied by which originally filled the the grooves.

ARMIN ELMENDORF.

REFERENCES CITED lhe following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number 

